Bill Jackson is the founder and CEO of GreatSchools, an independent, nonprofit organization that improves education by inspiring parents to get involved. GreatSchools provides parents with information and tools so they can choose the best school for their children, support their children's education, and improve schools in their communities. Since its founding 10 years ago, GreatSchools has emerged as the nation's leading source of preschool and K-12 school information, reaching about 1/3 of American K-12 parents each year. Bill is also a member of the Parent Association Council at the Chinese American International School, a member of the board of directors of the San Francisco Education Fund and a member of the California P16 Council.
What drew you to working in the education field and what path did you take to end up where you are now?
Four experiences sowed the seeds for GreatSchools in my mind:
Student. I was fortunate to get a great education, including three years of high school at Phillips Exeter Academy, where the teachers expected so much and treated me with intellectual respect. Some people come to work in education because they want others to have the opportunities they never had. I came to it because I wanted others to have opportunities like I had.
Teacher. After college, I taught in China and the U.S. for three years. I caught the teaching bug and I became fascinated by how family and cultural differences influenced education in the two countries. My Chinese students worked hard, but didn't necessarily understand education as a route to self-discovery and fulfillment. My American students were more likely to become personally invested in their learning, but they goofed off more. This experience made me want to work on the culture of education: if young people became personally invested and they worked hard... that would be the ticket!
Mentee. After teaching, I participated in the year-long??Coro Fellowship program in San Francisco. I had the good fortune to work for Ray Cortines, then Superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District. Ray sent me out to "spy" on 9 schools that were engaged in a particular school reform program. He wanted to know if the good news he was getting through official channels was really true. For the most part, it was not. This experience led me to believe that parents and the public--not to mention school administrators--needed more and better information about school quality.
Internet entrepreneur. After Coro, I spent nearly five years helping friends grow fledgling technology companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. This period coincided with the birth of the Internet as a tool for consumers. I could see the potential of this new medium to share information and create connections among people. With the support of??Joint Venture Silicon Valley, I?? began to design and develop GreatSchools.
How would you change education in America today?
First and foremost, I'm working on strengthening how parents and our broader culture support the education of young people.
Most of the conversation about education today involves talk of "school reform." And it's really critical that we improve our schools, especially the ones serving low-income families.
But there is another huge piece to the puzzle: The influence that parents and our culture have on young people's education.?? And it's not true that parents' impact is pre-determined by income.
Take a look at California and compare the achievement of low-income Asian students with low-income Latino students, as measured by California state tests. In 2007, 53% of low-income Asian students were scoring proficient on California's mathematics standards - compared to just 22% of low-income Latino students. Why?
My high-achieving Asian friends, rich and poor, tell a similar story. "I did well in school because I didn't have a choice...my parents made sure that I did." More Asian parents prioritize learning, insisting that the better their children do in school, the better for the family.
We need a huge dose of that kind of thinking in America now. Our children should feel the expectations of their parents, their ancestors and their society: Doing well in school is an obligation. We insist on this because we want our children to be all they can be, and we want them to be able to fully participate in and contribute to their own families, communities and this nation.
Of course, in addition to setting high expectations, parents have the opportunity to make a huge impact in their children's education by cultivating character traits that promote school success, supporting learning at home and school, choosing high-performing schools and guiding their children to college or other post-secondary training. We have to build parents' skills now so they can make that difference in their children's education.
This kind of cultural transformation and skill-building for parents may be even more difficult than "school reform," but it will be immensely powerful. Just closing a modest portion of the "parent expectations gap" between low- and high-income parents would have the equivalent impact on student achievement and success as replacing hundreds of low-performing schools with high-performing ones.
This is the core of what I'm working on at GreatSchools.
What advice would you give to a person who's brand-new to your area of the education world?
Teach in a classroom for at least two years, preferably three or more.
Which other educational innovator do you most respect and why?
Steve Barr. Green Dot Public Schools is providing thousands of young people in L.A. with schools that work. And now Steve and colleagues are taking the fight broader with the??Parent Revolution.